Saturday night in Prince George, the Cougars wrapped up their six game home stand with a 4-1 loss to the Kelowna Rockets. Madison Bowey broke a 1-1 tie at 10:45 of the second period, and Jackson Whistle stopped 29 of the 30 shots he faced to help secure the win for Kelowna. Carson Bolduc responded with the goal for Prince George and goaltender Brett Zarowny was strong stopping 36 of the 39 shots he faced in a losing cause.

After a fairly even first 10 minutes, Kelowna took the 1-0 lead at 11:17 of the first. Ryan Olsen knocked home a rebound over the right pad of Brett Zarowny and in for his fourth of the 2013-2014 season. Both teams had some quality looks at the net in the final stages of the first, but both Jackson Whistle and Brett Zarowny kept the puck out.

Early in the second the Cougars were given a lengthy five-on-three power play chance, but Jackson Whistle kept the door shut, denying the Cougars on their minute and 13 seconds worth of five-on-three time.

Shortly after the five-on-three had expired the Cougars found the equalizer. Jordan Tkatch did some great work along the wall to win the puck free, and then centered the puck to Carson Bolduc who blasted his second of the season past Whistle to tie the game at one.

But just over two minutes later Kelowna would bury the game winner. During a four-on-four sequence, Madison Bowey snuck through two Cougars defenceman and beat Zarowny on a backhand deke to make the score 2-1 Kelowna.

The Rockets were able to withstand a late push by the Cougars in the late stages of the second, and took their 2-1 lead into the third.

Kelowna kept the pedal down for a large part of the third, outshooting the Cougars 17-6. Kris Schmidli extended Kelowna’s lead to 3-1 at the 18:10 mark of the third period off a two-on-one rush. Zach Franko would add an empty netter shortly thereafter to make the final score 4-1 for the Rockets.

Kelowna outshot the Cougars 40-30, and neither team was able to capitalize on the power play: Kelowna went zero-for-five and the Cougars went zero-for-three.

Prince George now sits with a record of 7-9-1-3 and are now just two points ahead of the Vancouver Giants for eighth place in the Western Conference standings. The Rockets are 11-2-0-2, and are first in the B.C. Division.

The Cougars end their six game home stand with a record of 1-2-1-2, earning five of a possible 12 points. Next weekend the Cougars will kick off a stretch of three games in three nights on the road in Kelowna against the same Rockets team.